Hi Helen,
you wrote:

>In a client/server app, you open datasets as they are needed; and you avoid
>Table components if you possibly can. IB is not a desktop database like
>Paradox...it doesn't read physical records out of a table but queries
>tables in the database for a restricted ( = small as possible) number of
>rows. The DB engine has to search for the requested pages, which might be
>anywhere on the disk.
>

I know this but i already open only the table/query that i need for show at
the user a lot of data (extracted from a lot of different table) into a
single form. I have also a lot of lookup tables then i can't use this
tecnique (i think).
In a different application i have do that with great result.
Please, when can i find some documentation on the operation executed at
connection time and when i open a Table or a Query. If i better understand
what happen perhaps i can find a different solution.
I have read something about a local cache of the database structure, peraphs
this can help me ?

>
>Also, you'd need to provide more info about what kind of connection this is
>- local? TCP/IP remote? TCP/IP local? NetBeui?

Connection are TCP/IP Local.

Best regards,
Enrico Raviglione.